Matt and I met in 2009 on the little white isle also known as Ibiza. I had gone over to visit my best friends for a girly holiday as they had all finished Uni and were having the summer of their lives working a season there. I walked in to my friend’s apartment (where I was sleeping on the sofa for 10 nights!) to find their roommate, Matt, standing in the corridor about to leave for his bar shift. We instantly clicked and the rest is history as they say. Then five years later, he took me back to Ibiza and to the place we had our first date, a secluded cove off Cala Gracioneta beach, where he popped the question. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

What was your inspiration and vision for your day?

We struggled for a while to find a ‘theme’ or even a colour scheme for our wedding. However, once I signed up to Pintrest that soon changed! I spotted some beautiful floor-length sequin dresses in a champagne/rose gold colour and immediately fell in love with these. After showing and selling the idea to Matt, we had a theme and colour for the big day. Our wedding day was filled with beautiful copper, rose gold and metallic tones.

Why did you choose The West Mill Venue?

After initially wanting to get married in Ibiza, we thought this would be a big ask given that we have such a large family and friendship group. We decided to search closer to home and had heard that a new wedding venue had opened five minutes’ drive from our house. So on a Sunday in September 2015 we booked in to meet with Chrissie and the West Mill team. Chrissie didn’t need to sell the venue to us, as soon as we walked in and saw how different this venue was to anything else we had seen we were sold. We loved the industrial feel, exposed brickwork and the fact that you have a floor for each part of your wedding day. It truly is a very special place to get married.

Did you do any DIY projects?

So many! We booked the venue just under two years ahead of the wedding date which left plenty of time for DIY projects. The first project involved eating 140+ cans of sweetcorn so we could use the tins for our succulent favours! After eating sweetcorn with basically every meal for almost a year and half, we finally had the right quantity to start spray painting them copper. My Mother-in-Law, Janet, then kindly potted succulents into each tin and tied a foil pressed ‘thank you’ tag that we had made via Rose Press to each one.

We also created our table plan out of our favourite spirit bottles. It was a hard task but with the help of friends we guzzled our way through two of each of our chosen spirit bottles (one for the table marker and one for the display) and stuffed them with copper wire LED lights. On the display bottle, we had tags made by Rose Press tied to each bottle showing all the guest situated on that table. Emily, our fabulous West Mill Wedding Planner, helped style these in a hap-hazard way using some of the West Mill crates and some old wooden step ladders we had, and spray painted rose gold of course!

I also made a Funk Your Fizz trolley for the drinks reception, had flip-flops near the dance floor for the ladies, blankets in buckets outside, a pick and mix table, glitter station, sparklers and glow sticks for our Ibizan Rave Hour!

Tell us about the details…

So I bought my dress in the first shop that I went to the first time I ever went wedding dress shopping. I visited Lula Ann Bridal with my Mum as it’s near to where she lives in Birmingham and it was like walking into a sweet shop! My Mum pulled out a champagne colored Ronald Joyce ‘Eduarda’ gown from the rails of beautiful dresses and just looking at it on the hanger I knew it was something special. I tried it on and knew I didn’t need to look anywhere else; I gave it a week though before I said yes, just to be sure!! The dress had a detachable skirt/train which I wore for the ceremony and then I removed it for the breakfast as it was very big and dramatic, but I loved it.

Matt’s Ted Baker suit was from Brigdens Menswear in Derby which is where we also hired the Groomsmen’s suits from. Matt later found his brown Paul Smith shoes at the outlet store at Cheshire Oaks so he got a great bargain.

Our cake was made by one of the best men’s mum, Sonia Kemp – she did a fantastic job! We had a three tiered round cake consisting of a fruit tier, chocolate tier and a Madeira sponge tier. The top tier was decorated with individual sugar sequins which Sonia spent hours painstaking making by hand, spraying them and then sticking to the outside of the cake. The bottom was wrapped with copper ribbon and topped with an ‘Amy& Matt’ wooden topper from Rose Press. The final product looked too good to eat.

Our flowers were from the lovely Debbie at Passion Flowers, Derby. I met Debbie at one of the local wedding fayres and after seeing her work and having a chat with her, I knew I’d be in safe hands if she was providing our flowers on the day. I wanted lots of simple white Gypsophila to complement the sparkle of the rose gold, so we had big Gyp clouds in tall vases on each table as the center pieces and Debbie created a backdrop for the ceremony & wedding breakfast using rose gold ribbon entwined with Gyp, Roses and fairy lights. The bridesmaids had simple Gyp bouquets and I had a beautiful bouquet of Quicksand roses, Ohara roses, Gyp, Waxflower, Astillbe, Hydrangea and grey Eucalyptus- it was stunning and smelt incredible! Debbie also made Cotton Boll, Gyp and Eucalyptus corsages for the Groomsmen & Mum’s and filled all the extra rose gold sweetcorn tins and jars we’d collected with Gyp & Roses which were then scattered around the venue.

We wanted the reception to have some lighthearted fun elements to it that wouldn’t cost us the earth. So with that in mind and my love of all things sparkly, we had a DIY Glitter Station which my Maid of Honour did an excellent job of getting all the guests ‘glittered up’! Matt is obsessed with sweets so a Pick and Mix table with all his favorites was a no brainer for us. Then came the dancefloor! So I’m slightly renowned for using the odd kitchen utensil as a microphone during our friend’s house parties; so to keep this tradition alive we decided to spray a load of wooden utensils rose gold and put them near the dancefloor. Well after a few drinks everyone wanted one. The glowsticks during Rave Hour at the end of the evening were a massive hit too, as were the flip-flops for the ladies who had been wearing heels all day that still wanted to dance! Even I had to kick my Jimmy Choo’s off towards the end of the night and put on a pair!!

What was on the Menu?

During our drinks reception we served Castillo Perelada Brut bought from the West Mill drinks cellar along with a ‘Funk your Fizz’ station which contained lots of cordials, fruit and edible glitter that guests could funk their drink up with. We didn’t have canapes as our wedding breakfast was severed shortly after the ceremony and we wanted the guest to enjoy all of the lovely food we had planned for this.

As guests arrived to their tables they were treated to a shot of the spirit their table was named after at their place setting just to get things going!

It was important to us to factor in our favorite foods during our wedding day. So for our Starter we had big sharing Anti Pasti Platters of Buffalo Mozzarella, Sweet Peppers stuffed with Soft Cheese, Marinated Stuffed Olives, Prosciutto, Salami Milano, Slivers of Chargrilled Red Pepper and Mature Pecorino Cheese. On the side we had a selection of Artisan Breads served with a range of oils.

For our main we kept with the Mediterranean theme and had Breast of Chicken filled with Mozzarella, Pesto & Sundried Tomatoes wrapped in Serano Ham served with Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables, Creamed Spinach, Momma Jan’s Hasselback Potatoes and a Mediterranean Tomato & Basil Sauce. Matt’s Mum Jan makes the most amazing Hassleback Potatoes so we had to have these on our menu and name them after her!

We couldn’t decide on a dessert as we both love Chocolate Brownie and Vanilla Cheesecake, so in the end we picked both but to cause a stir we decided that all the ladies would be served Baked New York Vanilla Cheesecake with Berry Coulis, and all the men served Warm Chocolate Brownie with Clotted Cream. It certainly caused some chatter amongst the tables!

In the evening we had Fish and Chips served with Mushy Peas, Tartare Sauce, Tomato Ketchup, and lots of Salt & Vinegar! We had fingers of our wedding cake for dessert.

What was your favourite part of the wedding?

We had so many favorite parts to the wedding, but aside from the actual ceremony and marrying each other, the big party with all our nearest and dearest really stood out to us! We loved ‘fist pumping’ to One More Time by Daft Punk and I think the laughter captured in all the photos by Matt Holloway really shows just how much of a joyful day we all had.

It was also lovely that pretty much every one of our guests came outside at 10:30pm to let the sparklers off with us. Matt captured some amazing photos of this moment!

Can you sum up your wedding day in 3 words?

Love . Joy . Sparkle

Do you have any advice for future brides & grooms?

A few things we took from the day were….

Spreadsheets are your friend! I lost count of the amount of tabs our wedding spreadsheet had towards the end, but in the three month run up to the day when jobs and ‘to do’ items were popping into my head every five minutes whilst trying to hold down a life and fulltime job, the ‘to do’ tab on my spreadsheet became my best friend. I had a ‘to do’ column and a ‘completed’ column and it was very satisfying for my slight OCD side to see the ‘to do’ column get shorter and the ‘completed’ column get longer.

Finally, everyone (and I mean everyone) will say to you before the wedding just how fast the day will go. As annoying as it is to hear this every time you speak to someone, the sad fact is they are right. Enjoy every single moment of your day, even the silly things that don’t quite go to plan because in the blink of an eye it is over and you’ll be longing to do it all over again. We know that we are!